The American Religion Paperback – January 1, 2006

by Harold Bloom (Author)

4.2 69 ratings

In this fascinating work of religious criticism, Harold Bloom examines a number of American-born faiths: Pentecostalism, Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Southern Baptism and Fundamentalism, and African American spirituality. He traces the distinctive features of American religion while asking provocative questions about the role religion plays in American culture and in each American's concept of his or her relationship to God. Bloom finds that our spiritual beliefs provide an exact portrait of our national character.

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About the Author

Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University, is the author of more than thirty books, including The Anxiety of Influence, The Western Canon, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and How to Read and Why. His many honors include a MacArthur Award, the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Award of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Prize of Denmark.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chu Hartley Pub Llc; 2nd edition (January 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 305 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0978721004
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0978721008
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,402,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #89,956 in United States History (Books)
- #529,097 in Religion & Spirituality (Books)

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Sharif Graham

the wildly eccentric but brilliant literary critic

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017

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Bloom, the wildly eccentric but brilliant literary critic, decided to take on religion, American style. His remarks are essily more interesting than anything anyone else has ever written about religion in America, clearly a unique phenomenon only peripherally related to its Old World antecedents. I became so excited when I first read it that I briefly considered becoming a religious critic myself! (I was trained at Yale by Bloom and his colleagues as a literary critic in the 60s, but always had a strong interest in religion.) Rereading the book now, years later, it seems to me just as fascinating as it was the first time through. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand the strange phenomenon of religion in America.

14 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Harold Bloom makes some very good points here that perhaps even those faithful members of ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2015

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Harold Bloom makes some very good points here that perhaps even those faithful members of the "American Religions" should consider reading. The members of these faiths he discusses would do well to read what he has to say and then go back and live their faiths the best they can. In my opinion - much of the book is uplifting.

4 people found this helpful

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sdone

An unbiased view by a great scholar

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2011

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Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University is always an interesting read, regardless of his subject. He is among the best read individuals in America. It is pleasant to read such a work about the coming forth of the religions spawned by the great American experiment. In this book he documents his own bias as a cultural non-believing Jew which does not seem to color his opinion of the Christian faiths he observes. His is an interesting critique of the rise of these American religions including: Pentecostalism, Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Southern Baptism and Fundamentalism, and African American spirituality.

He seems to treat each fairly and justly as one from a background in literature and humanities, one with such an intellect and critical mind would do. History must judge each of these religious movements without the jaundiced eye of one who wants desperately to defend or equally angrily to defame the groups about which they write. Thus, this work is refreshing in the fairness with which it treats each. No religious movement is without its problems. Their founders and promulgators are always men and women who, even if they claim to be representing Deity or the Son of Deity, are mere mortals like ourselves. They are subject to foibles as well as we and few claimed to be perfect.

Among the numerous books that seek to defame many of these religions, particularly the Mormons or LDS, it is refreshing to see a fair appraisal by one who has nothing to gain nor to lose. Objectivity is something that is often missing in books such as this. Professor Bloom deserves praise for looking at an interesting, but not an easy subject to critique with an unbiased eye.

This is a very good book for anyone to read who is looking for a survey of American religions and who just wants the facts without coloration. In this area of human endeavor, one should be able to see the facts and judge for one's self, not have the author judge for them. Most of us like to make up our own minds and not have something thrust down our throats by someone with an agenda or an axe to grind. This is such a book.

I recommend this book highly as a very interesting and generally factual book. As with many of his other books, Professor Bloom is to be commended.

30 people found this helpful

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Fu Xi

This book was a disappointment to me

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2015

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This book was a disappointment to me. Bloom is one of our most admired literary critics and philosophers. He recognizes that religion in America has immense diversity, yet common characteristics. However despite being a scholar of religion, I was unable to get a clear idea of just what he means by 'the American religion.' He regards it as Gnostic, but Gnosticism is a slippery concept, in part because if was originally defined by its early Christian enemies.

The book is a product of original thought, but one wishes for greater clarity.

8 people found this helpful

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Mark Chandler

Every Christian in America should read this book and anyone ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2017

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Every Christian in America should read this book and anyone outside of America who want some serious help in understand what is wrong with this countries religion.

4 people found this helpful

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Alvredus

Outsider's Point of View

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2017

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Frank analysis of USA version of religion.

One person found this helpful

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AMber Smith

Interesting, but dated and a bit white-centric

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2014

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If you're curious about alternate white-Protestant Christian religions (with a bit of Reagan-bashing), this i the kind of book you want. It will give you interesting facts and histories that you can maybe trust. If you want a more thorough and varied exploration of the substantially more diverse religions of America (and thereby the American Religion), look elsewhere.

5 people found this helpful

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New voice

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2014

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Roger Green

"American" and "religion" cease to be separate things

Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2019

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I bought this book long ago. I see it must have been 1992 but somehow I thought it was even earlier. It has always fascinated me and I have gone back to re-read it every year or so. I just did so a month ago. I think it has struck a chord with many people, and I am not surprised to see it come out in a new edition. The few critical "external" reviews I have seen reflect more on the weaknesses of the reviewers than on the book. They're just not up to it.

One reviewer here says he doesn't understand what Bloom means by the American religion. If the guy just keeps re-reading it, eventually he will understand it, at least to some extent. Partly it's Bloom's language and his habit of approaching things tangentially and allusively. But that is part of why he is great - on Shakespeare and American authors and Freud and Jung and - - - . I find that every time I re-read "The American Religion" I understand something I hadn't on previous readings. I am an American by birth and have lived all over the world. Escaping the American patriotic myths and entering the reality seen by most educated non-Americans is still a challenge. American history as taught in public schools is very mythical and patriotic. Even a very American source such as the Smithsonian Magazine has to struggle with the American default perception of the War of 1812. Civil War hero and US President Ulysses S. Grant had to struggle with the American default perception of the Mexican War

This book is about the fusion of the American myths with the American religion(s). Bloom is fascinated by the Mormons, which is my family background. His fascination is similar to mine , and his references to Sterling McMurrin and Brigham Roberts immediately captured my images of them (not to mention Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor). I grew up partly in the south and my mixture of understanding and incomprehension of Southern Baptists ("You can't wash the car on Sunday?" I asked my college classmate from Richmond) is similar to Bloom's. I have known Pentacostals and Evangelicals and see them more-or-less as Bloom does. I have been close enough to black churches on Sunday mornings to get a feel for their religious feelings. My sense of the weirdness'es of Christian Scientists and Jehovah;s Witnesses match what Bloom sees. And I can't read a "New Age" book either. But what Bloom brings to me is a philosophical unity to the various American deviations in religion from their past (mostly European) antecedents. I am an environmental biologist but have been interested in history of religion (especially early Christianity) for a half century. Bloom certainly makes sense to me in this book.